There is only one path to true love, no matter how fate, fortune, or destiny play. Lady Isabella Fortescue has tired of trying to bring a man up to scratch. At thirty-one, she’s put herself on the shelf and is glad for it, except she wants to have one splendid folly to call her own before that happens. But the unorthodox arrival of a horribly rude man makes her think even a scandal isn’t possible. even a scandal isn’t possible.
Captain Peregrine St. John has sworn off women—indefinitely. With the ill-luck of his last relationship fresh in his mind, he retires from naval service sporting a bum leg and a shattered heart. Rustication proves beyond boring, and a visit to a gypsy fair has him face down in the mud on a stormy afternoon. The heated admonishment from a lady only further cements his attitude on the fairer sex.
As fate would have it, Isabella and Peregrine are neighbors in Buckinghamshire. As country social life throws them together, tempers rise with each new meeting and sparks fly. Verbal banter gives way to wicked glances, and teasing kisses flare into passion on one glorious night. Fortune might predict happiness or foolish error, but love can only bloom if they listen to true desires hidden deep inside their hearts.
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What an amazing love story. One can never expect when to find love even when you don’t want it. If follies meant to find true love then I’m all for it. Definitely a story worth listening to.
I enjoyed this cute romance. This is the seventh book in this series but I thought it read well as a standalone. I did get the feeling that there is some mystery being played out over the course of the series but to me it didn’t have a huge part to play in this book and it really wasn’t important enough for me to worry about. For me this book got off to a very slow start but once things really got started it was quite fun. I did feel that there were some pretty big historical inaccuracies in this book. I do not claim to be an expert but I do enjoy historical romances and many of the characters actions and/or things that were said seemed off to me. For me this was simply a petty annoyance but if you are a reader that must have historical accuracy to enjoy a book, you might want to think twice before reading this one. I thought that the characters to be OK. Peregrine, even if he had his reasons was honesty a gruff, uncouth, first class jerk. As for Isabella, she was some weird combination of innocent/siren that I felt totally did not fit with her social position or the era. I found her childishness, anxieties and strange indecisiveness frustrating and annoying when you consider the colossal choice she made in “engaging in scandal” for the summer with no thoughts to the repercussions of being discovered or the nine month later consequences that can arise from such actions. Still, I did think that there were some very enjoyable moments in this book and I did think they worked as a couple. I felt that the narrator did a good job in bringing the book to life.
This was another entertaining book in this series & Peregrine & Isabella were fated to be together. I loved their bantering back & forth & how eventually, the arguing became attraction. Isabella doesn’t want marriage, she is 31 yrs. old & on the shelf but she does want to have a scandalous, passionate love affair with Peregrine over the summer & then go their separate ways with no attachments or commitments
Fate didn’t see it that way & their journey to their HEA was entertaining, humorous & romantic. I would recommend this to all historical romance readers.
One more new-author-to-me discovered today.
This book even part of a series can be read as a standalone as I do think only the fortune teller gypsy links the books together.
I would have given a five stars rate if at one time in the story, the author had handled two subjects with more precautions.
Both main characters are very likable, despite being jaded and weary of women, Captain Peregrine St John is a nice man, he lets his emotions take the best from him. Thus he finds himself battling wits and insults with Lady Isabella Fortescue. She awakens feelings he thought buried forever behind the walls built around his heart.
Isabella has failed to find the right man for her, at 31, for the period she is definitely on the shelves but she wants one folly before accepting her future as a spinster.
She appears quite infantile in her way of action, I loved her banters with Peregrine, after as a sheltered woman of the ton, she acts rather childishly, without giving full thoughts to her moves.
An affair, whatever the spinster, wallflower or debutant, has its risks, the worst, an unexpected pregnancy that would ruin her definitively.
What ever, it was an engaging and funny read.
My decrease of one star is due to how the author treated lightly homosexuality during the breakfast party. First how would Isabella know about this then how can she ask openly to someone if his friend is his lover when it was a crime to be hanged. Then to render Peregrine jealous, she flirts shamelessly with a young man and kiss him in the open, with the risk to be seen and forced in an unwanted marriage, just stupid!
But if you subtract this, it was a good and fun read.
I really enjoyed the story itself so much. I loved the way Isabelle and Peregrine rubbed each other up the wrong way when they met and then when he agrees to partner her in her folly (a foolish act which one hopes not to be caught at) they both begin to realise they have fallen in love.
The narration of the audiobook fell a bit short in my estimation. The voices used were good but I hate it when almost every sentence sounds like a question instead of a full stop. This kind of thing spoilt the overall presentation for me – unfortunately. (I also went back to listen to the sample and it is definitely a better section that was used there.)
So I would definitely recommend the story itself but as for the audio, well you had better make up your own mind.
I listened to the audiobook version and this is my voluntary and unbiased review of it.